Fire heavily damages home and garage in Champaign

Residential Fire at 112 E. Hill St. in Champaign on the night of December 3, 2022.

CHAMPAIGN – A fire heavily damaged a home and detached garage in Champaign late Saturday night.

Fire Department Public Information Officer Randy Smith said no one was hurt in the fire and the cause is still under investigation.

When firefighters responded to 112 East Hill Street just before 9:00 p.m., a detached garage on fire. Flames had also jumped to an adjacent two-story home. 

Multiple fire crews worked together to extinguish the fire in both buildings. 

Smith says the residents of the home were away at the time of the fire.  But they will need to find an alternative place to stay.

Fire heavily damaged a home on December 15, 2022. (Reginald Hardwick/IPM News)

Reginald Hardwick

Reginald Hardwick is the News & Public Affairs Director at Illinois Public Media. He oversees daily newscasts and online stories. He also manages The 21st Show, a live, weekday talk show that airs on six NPR stations throughout Illinois. He is the executive producer of IPM's annual environmental TV special "State of Change." And he is the co-creator of Illinois Soul, IPM's Black-focused audio service that launched in February 2024. Before arriving at IPM in 2019, he served as News Director at WKAR in East Lansing and spent 17 years as a TV news producer and manager at KXAS, the NBC-owned station in Dallas/Fort Worth. Reginald is the recipient of three Edward R. Murrow regional awards, seven regional Emmy awards, and multiple honors from the National Association of Black Journalists. Born in Vietnam, Reginald grew up in Colorado and is a graduate of the University of Northern Colorado. Email: rh14@illinois.edu Twitter: @RNewsIPM